Spinning Life

By Eva-Maria Wall

As an exchange student, and lacking in Czech language skills, my choice was limited to interesting people who at least can speak some English. I already knew Pieter van de Vijver, because I used to wash my clothes there every second week. The fact he was also an exchange student, who had decided to stay here, interested me a lot. I wanted to find out if it was more than “I like the city” that had convinced him to stay.
One night in September 2006 at the Pomaly Bar in Brno, two foreigners are having some beers, joking around and imagining their future. Their ideas are not pomaly – in Czech, meaning slowly – but speedily erupting out of their mouths. Their excitement is perceptible.
Stimulated by these ideas, Dutchman Pieter van de Vijver awakes that night at 4 a.m. and saves his revelation on one sheet of paper. First thing next morning, he calls his Swiss partner, Patrick Scherer, to tell him “I know how to do it!”
Van de Vijver`s productive “night-session” was the genesis of Clubwash, a multifunctional laundry in Brno where you can wash, drink, socialize, watch theatre performances or movies or host your own party. “I didn’t know if it was the right thing, and if Patrick was the right person to start a business with, because I only knew him for one year and a half,” he says. “But what is a life without challenges?”
Van de Vijver, 29, is originally from Terneuzen in the southwestern Netherlands and is one of the two owners of Clubwash. He came to Brno in 2004 to work for his University in Utrecht at the Masaryk University for his IT Diploma, because he had a Czech girlfriend since 2002.
After one semester, he decided to leave behind his friends, his family and the beloved Dutch cheese, gouda, to finish his studies at Masaryk University. Then he started his own business.
“I already started at the age of 14 to organize an exam-party for my brother and I repeated it every year,” he recalls. “Two years later, I had 150 people coming to this event. I like to develop things, the freedom, and the possibility to go where I want to go and I`m always curious to learn new things.”
But running a business in a foreign country is neither easy, nor does it allow him much freedom. It does, however, enable him to realize his dreams. “Many young people have ideas, but nothing ever happens,” he says. “The greatest thing is to imagine something, and one day it’s there. Other people might describe it as, to turn your hobby into work.”
Another reason for wanting to start his own career was, that he started to suffer from repetitive strain injury (RSI) in his wrist and he knew it won`t be possible for him to work as a programmer for a company.
Seven months after their night in the bar, in April 2007, they received permission from the chamber of commerce to serve beer and offer laundry service. They had successfully negotiated the Czech bureaucracy with the help of a lawyer, renting and renovating an old, empty bakery. The only reminder of the bakery is a large weighing machine in the last of three rooms. Everything else emanates the vibe of a student hangout.
Van de Vijver is normally there every day; talking to and attending customers, planning further steps, creating flyers, repairing stuff or washing clothes.
But van de Vijver is more than a young entrepreneur. Besides managing Clubwash, he gives piano and drum lessons for free to two Roma boys, named Roman and Lukas. They were curious boys, who were checking out the new place. Van de Vijver used to play the acoustic guitar and they wanted to join.
“I used to work as a guard in an elderly home. For me helping and serving people or playing a concert for them is the same. It`s about satisfying them.” And with great certainty he adds, “We ended up here, in a Roma area, so why not care about it?”
In his opinion, the Roma issue is the biggest problem in the Czech society; mainly because of the segregated schools, the bad education. In his eyes, Czech people just tend to ignore them.
But also for him life is not as easy as it seems. Soon after the opening he broke up with his girlfriend and although their business in the last three months doubled up, he hasn`t earned back his investments. He knows that he has never worked so hard in his life and still there is no economical refund for it.
Van de Vijver as well had to change his lifestyle, which means he moved into a single-room apartment and spends as little money as possible, because “there is no money.” What keeps him going is his optimism. As he puts it, “I know I am doing the right thing. I simply feel it.”
Magda Grabczynska, who works for him, says that she has never seen him in a miserable mood and that everyone likes him. “He always has time to talk, which is not only important for business, but for life,” she says.
For the future, he would love to again take Czech classes at the university, which at the moment is financially not possible for him, but he also knows that “Running your own business is one big study and so I can also study for myself.”
All in all van de Vijver knows in a very professional and experienced way, where he wants to go and where his wind blows. “I always will try to go with flow and to be open for the future. If in five years I feel like starting a business in Spain, or if the music project with the Roma children would turn out to get more successful than the club, I want to be able to do it.”